Well, it looks like the cookie truly is crumbling. Following Firefox and Safari's tracks, Google is phasing out third-party cookies on Chrome in 2025. Tracking consumers as they navigate across the internet is a marketer's dream. It allows you to build profiles of target customers and serve the user with ads for products or services they'd previously viewed or may be interested in.
A 2023 Twilio report found that 81% of companies rely on third-party cookies. What’s more, Statista found that 45% of marketers allocated at least half of their budgets to cookie-based activations. There’s no doubt that third-party cookie marketing is big business.
However, privacy concerns have spelt the end of this lucrative marketing avenue. This presents a challenge for brands and agencies who rely on this strategy for digital advertising. Without the data from cookies, delivering personalised display ads becomes far more complex.
Exploring oven-fresh marketing strategies
We see the demise of third-party cookie tracking as an opportunity rather than a setback. Why? Data concerns will force marketers to adopt more transparent, user-friendly ways of gathering information and getting first-party data from their audiences.
Many businesses are contemplating where to reallocate their marketing budgets. Don’t wait until third-party cookies are phased out entirely. Begin planning now how you will adjust your strategy and reassess the optimal approach for engaging with customers going forward.
A Taboola study conducted by YouGov found that just 25% of advertisers are fully prepared for the phase-out of cookies. Of those surveyed, 44% of advertisers plan to shift advertising spend to different channels. The research also discovered that 46% of advertisers are happy with Google's decision to delay the phase-out.
Early results indicate that advertisers are maintaining key delivery and performance KPIs on third-party-cookie-deprecated environments, thanks to a combination of modelling, contextual targeting, first-party signals and third-party cookies. As an example, brands such as Amazon’s Demand-Side Platform reaches over 70% of anonymous traffic in relevant ways using these methods. The cookie-less shift increases opportunities to deliver relevant ads into inventory sources that were previously underutilised.
Forget the cookie-cutter approach
What other strategies will provide a strong return on investment? Most businesses are looking at alternatives. The power behind third-party cookies is data. This is key to a successful marketing strategy. It will help you to understand and engage with audiences.
Our tried and tested approach is based on factual data. It taps into the most lucrative customer for many retailers – the homemover. People spend the most money on retail goods and services when they are moving home - £29 billion a year. We track the residential property market so we know exactly who is in the home moving journey and can help you connect with this audience right when they’ll be considering your product or service. We offer robust marketing strategies to target these homemovers using our various marketing tools.
By taking your customer transactional data and matching those customers who are in the home moving journey, we can not only highlight the proportion of your current audience but also identify how much they're spending compared to 'non-mover' customers to see how valuable they really are to your business.
We consistently find that the homemover is a far more valuable customer than a non-mover. Take one of our top UK retail clients; we found that their homemover customers are 8.6 times more valuable, which is driven by a higher order rate and a higher average order value.
We can help you to recruit brand new customers through direct mail, email marketing, mobile advertising, programmatic and TV digital ads. We can formulate the best approach, personalised for your business but targeting that audience that is always in the market for goods and services – the homemover.
According to Getapp, 41% of marketers anticipate their biggest challenge to be tracking the right data following the end of third-party cookies. That’s why you need a data expert like us to help you.
Tried, tested and timeless – direct mail campaigns
Say hello to a good old friend - direct mail advertising. In contrast to the fleeting nature of display ads, direct mail offers tangible, lasting impressions on recipients. It is a proven formula for getting in front of those who have never heard of your brand, before moving on to other marketing channels. It also works well for re-engaging with lapsed customers or strengthening brand loyalty with existing customers.
Direct mail is data privacy compliant, so it is looked at more favourably than tracking individuals online. The Twilio report found that 85% of customers wanted brands to use only first-party data. Physical mail also grabs more attention and increases brand recall thanks to its tangibility. According to JICMAIL, a retailer's mailer commands 130.6 seconds of attention, remains in the home for an average of 8 days and is interacted with 3.39 times over 28 days. Direct mail offers opportunities for creativity, enabling the creation of more memorable content compared to digital ads.